God of Surprises

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If I have got the wrong end of the stick, perhaps someone would enlighten me or direct me to another book that might have a better chance of starting me on a journey. Ignatios Loyola using the parable of the treasure found in a field for which a man sells everything to aquire.

Creative and consolatory feelings are those that lead us to discovering more of our hidden treasure, whereas destructive and desolatory feelings lead us away from it. This identification is done by the means of examining the quality and fruit of those felt desires, categorising them as either creative or destructive, and consolatory or desolatory. As such, any reader whose interest is piqued by this book may well wish to attend an Ignatian Spiritual Exercises retreat, and then use the book as a guide to their on-going reflections. I don't have a lot of patience for the "coolness" in dissing people for believing in something bigger but that's my own problem to get over.

The exercises given at the end of each chapter helps to interiorize and work on the insights gained. At the end of the chapter, the author makes a wonderful comparison between the marks of true repentance vis-à-vis false repentance. Faulty understanding of these two important events in Christ’s life contribute to producing a distorted image of God and deter us from our spiritual journey. Slight failures are such that the contents page is not indexed and there are frequent references to 'such-and-such on page 00' which should have been edited as there are no page numbers. This is problematic for me, because I am also a scientist and more inclined to accept things according to the evidence supporting them than on a premise of faith.

The 2022 edition of this evergreen classic comes with a new foreword written by Margaret Silf and is presented in paperback with a contemporary cover design and French flaps. Hughes' premise, that `Our treasure lies in our inner life', may cause eye-rolling suspicion of New Ageism to some readers. This book has only one purpose: to suggest ways of finding the treasure in what we may consider a most unlikely field - ourselves. God of Surprises is characterised throughout by practical wisdom and humanity, deep thoughts and light touches, and a very sympathetic style of teaching . Our inner selves can tell us the direction our lives should take and supply the inspiration and energy to take it.

The purpose of this book is to suggest ways of finding the treasure in what we may consider an unlikely field--ourselves. I'm sure some of the more conservative Catholics would say he is way off, but, well, he's a priest too and views like his will do a lot more to help people and the Church. Other than that I would recommend the book but be prepared to read it quite slowly and really take the time to dig into the exercises if you want the full benefits. Although not recommended by the author I did read straight through it without doing the exercises at the end of each chapter.

Hughes openly challenges many of the most commonly-observed pillars of organized religion but productively offers solutions for churches progressing with the times to serve modern humanity.

The Final Chapter applies the insights of the book to a very real situation- the threat of nuclear war. The use of the imagination and emotions in encountering what God has to say to you from his word is gently and easily put.

This may sound trite and simplistic, but it the writing and exercises are full of good advice about developing your relationship with God.

Embracing mystical styles of reflection and prayer such as Ignatian contemplative prayer, he encourages the reader to identify and counter whatever desires are not oriented towards God. Hughes found human beings complicated "with layers upon layers of consciousness", most of which we never break through. Through many practical suggestions for heightened prayer, including Ignatian exercises and Jungian exploration, God of Surprises guides readers along the inner journey which reveals to us a God we may not have expected to find. At the end of the chapter, he presents some biblical texts which could be useful for imaginative contemplation.